Saturday, October 29, 2005

Bush on Iraq: Light at the End of the Tunnel

As the saying goes: when you’re in a hole, stop digging. At this low point in Bush’s reign, almost anything he does will probably just sink him deeper and deeper.

Scooter Libby has received five indictments. Bush’s poll ratings (and public support for the Iraqi war) are at an all-time low. Harriet Miers ran off with her tail between her legs, mostly because of constant sniping and yelping from Bush’s own “friends” on the Far Right. We brung this boy to the dance and by God he’s gonna dance with us!

If conservatives are puzzled that Iraq keeps getting compared to Vietnam, all they have to do is listen to their own rhetoric. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel” (Vietnam) has evolved into “the terrorists are on their last legs. See how desperate they are.”

As soon as the first few American soldiers were killed in Vietnam, the rallying cry was “we can’t let these deaths be in vain. We have to keep fighting.” In his radio address today, Bush said “the best way to honor the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission and win the war on terror.”

A local letter to the editor summed it up. If we pull out of Iraq now, there’ll be civil war and bloodshed. If we wait and pull out of Iraq later, there’ll be civil war and bloodshed. It’s their business; they’re gonna do whatever they’re gonna do. How many Iraqis died in our civil war?

In Bush’s speech, he continued to blur and confuse “the war on terror” with our invasion of a country that had nothing to do with al Qaeda or 9/11. And he kept referring to the “great sacrifice” being made — like he’d know.